Masculinity and fashion consumption

Elrum, Kristina

4. term

Culture, Communication and Globalization, Master

2017

2017-07-29

61 pages

People consume fashion every day in the sense that they wear clothes. The aim of this Master’s thesis is to investigate ‘How can Danish and Italian men use fashion consumption to construct their masculinity?’ In this thesis men’s construction of masculinity through fashion consumption is analyzed based on two qualitative methods: unstructured non participant observations and semi-structured in-depth interviews. The observations in Italy were conducted between April 6 and April 8 in 2017, during that period 43 observations were made, of which 18 were of men who shopped alone, 10 of couples shopping, and 15 of people that were shopping in groups. The observations in Denmark were conducted between June 1 and June 3 2017, during that period 38 observations were made, of which 16 were of men who shopped alone, 6 of couples shopping, and 16 of people that were shopping in groups. The interviews were made between the April 6 and July 5 2017, the interviewees were between 19 and 28 years old and had either Danish or Italian nationality. Through the empirical research it was found that the male clothes that mostly represented the hegemonic masculinity was the ‘suit’. But even though the suit is seen at the typical hegemonic male fashion, the suit was solely represented by the participants in the observations and the informants all stated that the suit was not a part of their daily clothes. There was also found stigmatization of some clothes, because they were perceived to be related to homosexuality. In the analysis there was not found a big difference between Italian and Danish men as fashion consumers. But it was found that clothes or fashion is a way to reflect who a person is, and it can be used to express one’s personal trait and therefore also one’s masculinity.

masculinity ; fashion consumption

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